Hello Fresh Review and Coupon #hellofreshpics – August 25

Our latest Hello Fresh had three great takes on classic dishes, shaking up the preparation while maintaining the overall impression of the dish.  Hello Fresh is a meal kit subscription box where you’ll get the recipes and ingredients to make 3 meals for two (or 4) every week. Hello Fresh is a subscription, but you can pause your deliveries and choose alternate meals (at least for the Classic box). There’s also a vegetarian box available. This is a solid meal subscription box with easy and accessible recipes.  Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8. 

Hello Fresh recently redesigned their menu cards, and the instructions are super easy to follow.  It has nice illustrations, is clearly written, and even lets you know nutrition info, prep time, and which recipes are best to make first to optimize freshness of perishables.  Hello Fresh sends all the sauces, bouillon and such in individual serving packets or in off-the-shelf brand name packaging; although it means a little more packaging, they survive shipping better than the plastic cups used by Plated.

The new packaging has arrived in the last several boxes – it’s more recyclable than the previous bags (you still have to pull the plastic off the cardstock) and keeps the more tender ingredients from sitting on top of the icepacks (which, FYI, you can dump into the sink and recycle the plastic). Hello Fresh now places the nutritional info on the outside (photo of previous week).

Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Balsamic Potato Salad and Garlic-Roasted Tomatoes. 35 minutes, level 1, 575 cal.

When I served this combo, Brandy asked why the potatoes weren’t hot.  Because it’s a potato salad — I think.  It wasn’t clear whether the potatoes were meant to be served hot, but they were really good as leftovers once they had chilled in the fridge overnight.  The tomatoes were loaded with a pile of great roasted garlic flavor, and the chicken was delicious.  The breast itself is all-natural, high-quality poultry, and the mustard breading technique is a real winner, making the dish very simple to make.  

The baby loves to help in the kitchen!

Zucchini Noodle Lasagna. 45 minutes, level 2, 599 cal.

This was a LOT of food!

I really liked this recipe for two reasons:  it was really easy to prepare, and it replaced the noodles with a suitable vegetable substitute without taking out the meat!  Too many alternative noodle recipes are straight out of vegetarian cookbooks, so they don’t do much to preserve the protein content or meaty flavor of the dish.  This lasagne went together in a snap and had a nice, hearty flavor.

Sweet and Sour Pork with Mango and Sticky Rice. 30 minutes, level 1, 680 cal.

A great take on the pineapple chicken dish on every Chinese menu.  The method of cooking the pork created a moist surface that added texture and held the sauce extremely well.  The mango really amped up the tropical flavor of the dish, and it had a smoother texture and held together better than pineapple would have.  We were quite impressed with this dish, and it was even better as a leftover, once the vinegar had mellowed a bit.

I loved the clever alternative methods used for this week’s dishes.  The chicken breading technique is much easier than the traditional three-step process, cooks better without having to deep fry it, and adds a lot of flavor.  The lasagna’s use of zucchini saves the step of par-boiling noodles, and it makes a lighter and healthier dish.  Finally, the mango and pork gave the “pineapple chicken” dish extra texture and more complex flavor than the restaurant version.

Here are the selections for next week! Meal choices end Wednesdays at midnight.  The freekeh salad offered as an alternate is also featured as a Chef’s Choice in the vegetarian menu for the week. Also, Hello Fresh seems to have revamped their interface a bit – it’s cleaner and easier to access the upcoming recipes!

You can click on each dish and get the recipe information, including calories, ingredients, and difficulty levels.  We like having this info available beforehand, as it allows us to avoid meals that we think are too involved or require to much time for our schedule that week.  Although the names of the dishes are fairly lengthy and descriptive, it is also nice to have the ingredient list to get a fuller picture of the dish.

We love Hello Fresh — the ingredients are high quality, and the recipes are easy to follow.  This week’s dishes were no exception, and I’m pleased to see they keep creating new dishes and continue to be creative with their selections.

Visit Hello Fresh to select your box for next week!  Take $40 off your first box with coupon code 7UT7K8.Check out all our Hello Fresh Reviews and don’t forget to take a look at other Fresh Food Subscription Boxes